BOLTON - 21 April 2008 - 320 words
Operation
Noah urges 10% of defence budget to be transferred to green projects
Fewer tanks and planes and greater emphasis on the threat to security
from dangerous climate change. That is the central message announced
by Operation Noah, a faith-based movement that seeks braver leadership
from religious and political figures on the issues surrounding
global warming.
Speaking on Saturday at a "God and Global Warming" public
meeting in Bolton, attended by representatives of the Christian,
Muslim and Hindu faiths, Operation Noah's Mark Dowd said:
"The UK's former Chief Science Adviser
declared the issue of climate change to be a bigger long term
threat to the country than terrorism. It is about time spending
priorities reflected that. "
"The latest evidence from the world's leading climate scientists
leaves us in no doubt," said Dowd. "Nothing less than
an urgent re-appraisal of our whole way of living will be needed
if we are to head off the threat to God's creation. We call today
for climate change to be recognised as a security threat and for
ten percent of the UK's annual £33 billion defence budget
to be reallocated to a crash programme of investment into renewable
energy and green-collar jobs insulating the UK's homes and buildings."
Britain is lagging a long way behind other EU countries when it
comes to diversifying energy from non-fossil fuel energy sources.
Only two countries, Malta and Luxembourg, fare worse in a comparative
league table.
Operation Noah, which has the support of a number of Britain's
leading church figures, is in favour of drastic cuts in the UK's
CO2 emissions in the interests of an attempt to provide international
leadership. Whereas the government's current Climate Change Bill
aims at a 60 per cent cut by 2050, Operation Noah group wants
a 90 per cent cut by 2030 and for shipping and aviation to be
included.
"We need to stabilise the climate and that means a major
re-think on road building and airport expansion," said Mark
Dowd. "This is not gloom and doom. This issue can unite different
cultures and religious faiths. We need to live more simply. We
cannot go on worshipping indefinitely the false god of year-on-year
economic growth. We must live within the limits of what the Earth
can take."
© Independent Catholic News 2008
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